No. 9 UCLA to Battle for the Bell

Thursday, October 12

Los Angeles, CA

All Day

UCLA

Battle for the Bell

Kate Villegas (photo: Ross Turteltaub)

Photo by: Ross Turteltaub

No. 9 UCLA to Battle for the Bell

October 10, 2023 | Women's Golf

Season Stats (PDF)Battle for the Bell Feature Story by Laz Versalles Royal Crowned Pac-12 Golfer of the Week UCLA Women's Golf Twitter

LOS ANGELES – The No. 9 UCLA women's golf team looks to defend its title at the second annual Battle for the Bell in a single-round match play event versus No. 14 USC at Bel-Air Country Club on Thursday, Oct. 12. The Bruins won the inaugural matchup, 8.5-3.5.

There will be no live scoring provided for the event. Check @UCLAWomensGolf on Twitter for updates throughout the day. The two rival squads tee off at 1:10 p.m. (PT).

Scoring System
Each match victory is worth one point. If the match is tied after 18 holes of play, the point will be halved. The team with the most points after the one round of play will be the winner. If there is a tie in points, the winner will be determined by the total number of holes won on the day.

Pairings
Meghan Royal vs. Amari Avery (1:10 p.m.)
Tiffany Le vs. Bailey Shoemaker (1:10 p.m.)
Kate Villegas vs. Xin Kou (1:20 p.m.)
Zoe Antoinette Campos vs. Catherine Park (1:20 p.m.)
Jennifer Seo vs. Brianna Navarrosa (1:30 p.m.)

Weather Report: Sunny skies with a high of 73 degrees.

Last Time Out
UCLA captured the first victory of the Alicia Um Holmes head coaching era at the Windy City Collegiate Classic at Glen View Club (Golf, Ill.) last week in historic fashion. The Bruins tied a program 54-hole record 32-under 832 to win by nine strokes in a loaded field featuring nine top-25 teams. All five UCLA competitors shot finished the tournament under par, led by sophomore Meghan Royal who finished runner-up at 9-under 207.

UCLA recorded rounds of 272-280-280. In total, the Bruins' rotation went 12-for-15 on under par rounds for the tournament. The UCLA team score tied the mark it set at the 2018 Golfweek Conference Challenge which featured current LPGA Tour stars Lilia Vu and Patty Tavatanakit.

Joining Royal in the top 10 were juniors Zoe Antoinette Campos (t-4th, -8) and Caroline Canales (t-8th, -7) who shot under par in all six of their rounds. UCLA's golfers shot under par in 12 of the 15 individual rounds in the tournament.

Fresh Bruins of Bel-Air
Bel-Air Country Club has served as UCLA's home course for more than 40 years. Located five minutes from campus across Sunset Boulevard, Bel-Air's original architecture was done by George C. Thomas, Jack Neville and Billy Bell Sr., with most recent changes by Robert Trent Jones. The Bruins play there frequently for their qualifying rounds.

This past summer, Canales reached the Round of 32 of the 123rd U.S. Women's Amateur as the No. 5 seed at Bel-Air Country Club. Canales trailed two down in the Round of 64 before winning four holes on the back nine to advance.

Inaugural Battle for the Bell Recap
UCLA defeated USC, 8.5-3.5, in the first Battle for the Bell on Feb. 1-2, 2023 over two match play rounds at Sherwood Country Club and Rolling Hills Estates. The Bruins won eight out of 12 matches in the tournament. Canales, Campos and Yuki Yoshihara each claimed two victories.

Laz Versalles with the Fire Pit Collective was on site at Rolling Hills to document the significance of the crosstown showdown for collegiate golf in this story linked here: "The Battle for the Bell".

Royal Crowned Pac-12 Golfer of the Week
Royal was named Pac-12 Women's Golfer of the Week on Tuesday following her t-2nd finish at the Windy City Classic. It was her first Pac-12 weekly honor. She received SEC Freshman of the Week honors last season as a member of the Arkansas Razorbacks.

Immediate Impact
Royal has been UCLA's top finisher in each of its first two tournaments of the season. She paces the Bruins with a 70.0 scoring average and four rounds in the 60s.

A week after posting the first top 20 placement of her career at the Mason Rudolph Championship, Royal bested that with a runner-up finish at the Windy City Collegiate Classic. Royal's three lowest round scores of her collegiate career have come in her first two tournaments as a Bruin. She owns UCLA's lowest 18-hole score of the year with a 6-under 66 in round one of the Windy City Collegiate Classic.

Returning Leaders
Juniors Campos and Canales, who were UCLA's top two golfers a season ago in terms of scoring average, each shot under par in all three rounds to record top-10 finishes at last week's Windy City Classic. It marked the 10th and 11th top 10 finishes of Campos and Canales' careers, respectively.

Keep an Eye Out for Villegas
Villegas has a proclivity for match play. She went on an impressive stretch in match play competition this summer winning three Southern California Golf Association (SCGA) events. Most recently, Villegas won the 27th California Women's Championship in Ojai, Calif. on Aug. 10 after sinking a birdie in the first hole of a four-way playoff to finish 4-under (65-73-71). Villegas also won the 57th California Women's Amateur Championship at La Cumbre Country Club and became the first to repeat as champion in the SCGA Match Play Women's Division on July 12.

Alongside her UC Riverside transfer counterpart Tiffany Le, the two finished runner-up in the U.S. Women's Amateur Four-Ball Championship on May 17 at The Home Course in DuPont, Wash.

Hot Start
UCLA jumped from No. 17 to No. 9 in the Golfweek rankings following its victory at the Windy City Collegiate Classic last week. All five Bruins who have teed it up in the first two tournaments – Campos, Canales, Royal, Villegas and Alessia Nobilio – are under par on the season for a combined scoring average of 71.0. UCLA's golfers have shot under par in 18 of 30 individual rounds to begin the 2023-2024 season.

Historic 18-Hole Marks
UCLA has recorded two of the six lowest 18-hole scores in program history this season. The Bruins shot a 15-under 273 in round three of the Mason Rudolph Championship on Sept. 24.

UCLA rode that momentum into its very next round with a 16-under 272 to open the Windy City Collegiate Classic on Oct. 2. That mark is tied for the third lowest 18-hole score in program history and is UCLA's best showing since round three of the 2018 Golfweek Conference Challenge.

Mayorkas Joins WGCA Hall of Fame
Charlotte Mayorkas, one of just four three-time WGCA First Team All-Americans in UCLA history, will be inducted into the WGCA Players Hall of Fame, it was announced Oct. 4. The ceremony will take place on Dec. 4, 2023.

Mayorkas competed for UCLA from 2001-2005 and is the fifth Bruin to be enshrined by the WGCA and third as a member of the Players Hall of Fame. She joins Janet Coles (Players Class of 1988), Jackie Tobian-Steinmann (Coaches Class of 1989), Kay Cockerill (Players Class of 1996) and Carrie Forsyth (Coaches Class of 2011).

Mayorkas' historic senior campaign helped lead the Bruins to the Pac-10 Championship, NCAA Regional Championship and NCAA Championship titles in 2004. She tallied a single-season school record four wins and 10 top-10 finishes en route to capturing the individual Pac-10 title and was named the first Pac-10 Golfer of the Year in program history. Mayorkas finished top 5 at both NCAA Regionals and NCAA Championships that season. A native of Chula Vista, Calif., Mayorkas ranks second in program history in career top-10 finishes (24) and fifth in career tournament wins (5). After graduating from UCLA, Mayorkas turned professional and won two Duramed Futures Tour titles before going on to make 54 out of 67 cuts during her career on the LPGA Tour.

Campos Named to ANNIKA Award Preseason Watch List
For the sixth straight year, UCLA has had a golfer named to the ANNIKA Award Preseason Watch List. Campos was the latest honoree earlier this September. Two Bruins have won the ANNIKA Award: Alison Lee (2014) and Bronte Law (2016).
Past ANNIKA Award Preseason Watch List Honorees
2022-23: Zoe Antoinette Campos
2021-22: Alessia Nobilio
2020-21: Alessia Nobilio, Emma Spitz
2019-20: Emma Spitz
2018-19: Mariel Galdiano, Patty Tavatanakit, Lilia Vu
2017-18: Patty Tavatanakit, Lilia Vu

What's New, Bru?
The new-look Bruins are composed of four transfers and one freshman for a total of five newcomers, UCLA's most since the 2019-20 season.

The transfers include Tiffany Le and Kate Villegas from UC Riverside, Meghan Royal from Arkansas and Natalie Vo from Colorado. Jennifer Seo from Chandler, Ariz. is the singular freshman in this year's class.

A New Era
On May 25, 2023, UCLA Athletic announced Alicia Um Holmes as the next head coach of the UCLA women's golf team. Um Holmes, who spent the last 17 years as an assistant and associate head coach for the Bruins, is the fifth head coach in the program's history.

Alongside UCLA Athletic Hall of Famer Carrie Forsyth, Um Holmes helped guide the Bruins to the 2011 NCAA Championship, five NCAA Regional titles and two Pac-12 Championships. Beginning her first year as an assistant in 2006, Um Holmes and Forsyth went on a dominant run of five consecutive seasons, with top three finishes at both the conference championships and Regionals. They placed top three at nationals in four of those five years.

Um Holmes and Forsyth have produced two ANNIKA Award winners, which is annually given to the top female Division I collegiate golfer, in Alison Lee (2014) and Bronte Law (2016), as well as two PING WGCA Player of the Year honorees in Law (2016) and Lilia Vu (2018). Eleven UCLA golfers have hauled in 21 WGCA First-Team All-American Awards since Um Holmes has been on the coaching staff. No school has won more Pac-10/12 Golfer of the Year awards than UCLA since Um Holmes has been on staff, with four Bruin golfers taking home the honor five times.

An All-American Returns Home
Um Holmes announced former Bruin All-American golfer Erynne (Lee) Yoo as her assistant coach on June 26, 2023. Yoo was coached by Um Holmes and Forsyth during her collegiate playing career from 2011-2015. As a Bruin, Yoo was a three-time WGCA All-American, earning first-team recognition in 2012 and 2013, was an All-Pac-12 First Team honoree in 2013 and was both the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year and NGCA Freshman of the Year in 2012.

Yoo returns to Westwood after a season and a half as the assistant at Princeton University. The Tigers posted three top 3 finishes in 2022-2023 and recorded their best performance of the season at the Columbia Classic where they placed second out of 14 teams. One of Yoo's golfers, Victoria Liu, qualified for NCAA Regionals.

Welcome to the Hall!
Carrie Forysth, who completed her 24th and final season as head coach in 2022-23, was enshrined in the 2023 UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame Class on Oct. 6. She is the fourth member of the program to be inducted.

During her tenure, she led the Bruins to two NCAA titles (2004 and 2011), eight top 3 NCAA finishes, three runner-up finishes and 20 NCAA Championship appearances. Her Bruins won nine NCAA Regional Championships, five Pac-12 titles, and 74 tournament victories. A two-time National Coach of the Year, Forsyth won four Regional Coach of the Year awards and six Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors. Forsyth coached two ANNIKA Award winners, two PING WGCA Players of the Year, 14 first-team All-Americans and three golfers who went on to win an LPGA Major event. Forsyth was a walk-on at UCLA and competed at the Pac-10 and NCAA Championships her freshman season before earning a scholarship by her sophomore year.